The official Blog for the University of Leicester 2012 entrance to the iGEM competition. Where you will find out more about the team, the project and what we're doing. Regular updates will be posted, as well as ways to get involved and help the team yourself.
Feel free to contact us regarding anything on the blog at - igem@leicester.ac.uk and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

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Wednesday, 20 June 2012

We have three important pieces of news to share with you! Each of them deserves a full post, but for now at least, here's a little information about each...

First of all, Christopher, Will, Luke, Emily and Dr Badge are all currently on their way to Jablite/Styropack, a producer of polystyrene who share our concern for the environment. While there they will be taking a tour of the factory and giving a presentation on our project, and hopefully they will be able to help us out as a new sponsor with a blog post on event afterwards.

Speaking of new sponsors...QIAGEN are on board! QIAGEN are a sample and assay technology company, and they have kindly donated £200 worth of kits for our project. Thank you, QIAGEN! (A link to their website is near the bottom of the page, alongside our other sponsors.)

And finally, the University of Leicester BioBlitz event on Saturday was a great success! We didn't sell as many cakes as we had hoped (Chris optimistically bought 48 - we sold 5!), but we got a few citizen science experiment kits sold, discussed our project with lots of people, doodled on lots of balloons, played with bubbles, and generally had a very good time! A huge thanks to our friends from the Environment Team, and everyone else who helped out with the BioBlitz!

Saturday, 16 June 2012

The Environment team at the University of Leicester are holding a BioBlitz in the hope to identify as many of the species on the university land over a 24 hour period, focusing on identifying aquatic invertebrates and higher plant species, as well as insects, mosses, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds. A BioBlitz is a large scale event which hope to engage the public with Biodiversity, getting them directly involved in surveying the land to find out just how many species there are in the area, seeking, identifying and recording as many species as possible over a 24 hour period. The events will include interactive activities such as face painting and arts and crafts, and experts will be on hand to explain the identification techniques and other aspects of biodiversity.

The event will start at 17:00 on Friday the 15th of June with various activities on central campus leading into the 16th of June where events will be held at 7:00 at the Attenborough Arboretum, then from 10:00 -16:00 there will be activities at Blackthorn Manor (behind the sports facilities in the student village); where we will be having our very own iGEM stall with some cakes on sale for 60p (2 for £1), balloons and bubbles for the "children" (I'm sure Will will have at least twice as much fun as anybody else), and more information about our project. Not only that but this will be a great opportunity to get your hands on one of our Environmental Citizen Science Sampling Kits for £2.
There is also a Free bus provided from the Charles Wilson building to the blackthorn manor every 30 minutes from 10:00 to make it easier to attend.